An Electrochemical Reduction of TiO2 Pellet in Molten Calcium Chloride

A porous TiO2 pellet was electrochemically converted to the metallic titanium by using a CaCl2 molten salt system at 850 degree C. Ni-TiO2 and graphite electrodes were used as cathode and anode, respectively. The electrochemical behaviour of TiO2 pellet was determined by a constant voltage control electrolysis. Various reaction intermediates such as CaTiO3, Ti2O and Ti6O were observed by XRD analysis during electrolysis of the pellet. Once TiO2 pellet was converted to a porous metallic structure, the porous structure disappeared by sintering and shrinking with increasing the reaction time at high temperature.